Sonnet #65

Sacrifice, sap root and stem to burn,
Trees and cornstalks know the price of water
They exhale the dew, and know they earn
Water from the clouds and also slaughter

The tallest of the trees will feel the storm
The rumbling gods of water will take their due
The hillocks of the field, the clustered corn
To pay the price for rain, who will die? Who

will take the heat and burn and blast? Lightning
strikes, hail will fall, ice and snow will mound and crack
the weak. Pay the price for rain. No need for fighting
The gods of thunder take the tallest in the stack

The empty places in the fields where payment took
The holes in forests where kings trembled and shook